Living on Small Islands: Archaeological Perspectives on Vulnerability and Resilience

This volume examines the archaeology of small islands and the ways in which island communities have responded to environmental challenges across different regions and periods. The contributors examine the resilience of islanders in addressing these challenges, the solutions that they have devised, and instances in which resource depletion necessitated the abandonment of inhabited islands.The topics addressed include the demographic and social impacts of environmental changes on small islands and the influence of the unique environmental conditions on local cultures and range from the survey of small Aegean islands and strategies for managing water scarcity in the Iron Age Cyclades to Greek colonisation in the Adriatic, shell mound-building societies of southern Brazil, and community-based approaches to heritage and climate resilience in the Caribbean. The contributors consider religious practices, social organisation, economies, material culture and traditions. Together, the studies demonstrate the diverse roles played by small islands within wider cultural and economic networks and highlight their importance for understanding long-term human-environment relationships.

Erica Angliker is a specialist in island studies and Ancient Greek religion. She holds a PhD from the University of Zurich and MAs from Columbia University and Unicamp. Her research examines the cultural, spatial, and ritual dimensions of Aegean sanctuaries, with a focus on the Cycladic islands. She is a research fellow at the University of São Paulo and at Unicamp, collaborates on the Despotiko excavations, is a director of ArcheoPaideia, and organises a summer school in Greece.Lilian de Angelo Laky is a research fellow at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of São Paulo and at the German Archaeological Institute excavations at Olympia (DAI-Athens). She has a PhD in Mediterranean Archaeology from the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo (2016) and Post-doctorate in Ancient History (2023) from the same university. Her research focuses on insularity, cities, and territories of the polis, cult and sanctuaries, and ancient Greek numismatics.